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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Film Review: How Ohio State's Pressure Affected Wisconsin

One of the questions stemming from last Saturday's Ohio State victory over Wisconsin – especially after the first half – was why wasn't OSU consistently getting pressure on Wisconsin's quarterback, Joel Stave. With a team so loaded in the front four with pure pass rushers, it was expected that they would force Stave's hand a bit. Indeed, they did, even when they didn't necessarily get pressure. We'll look at a few ways that Wisconsin attempted to mitigate pressure, and how, eventually, the Buckeyes still overcame it to hurry the opposing QB for much of the game.

Max Protect

After Wisconsin got over the initial terror of the first few drives, they went back to the drawing board in a way. Rather than attacking Ohio State horizontally, they started going more straight ahead. Combined with that, they were able to start incorporating some of their max protection package, where they only send two or three receivers out in routes. What this means is that OSU's front four will initially be doubled, and every blitzer should theoretically be easily picked up. The key is that you have to maintain coverage behind it.

Or, you can beat the chip blocks (having the RB do an awful job also helps) and you see something like this:

So then how else did Wisconsin "avoid pressure"?

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To see more ways Wisconsin schemed to try to avoid pressure, and how OSU overcame those methods, follow the link to Land-Grant Holy Land.